Wednesday, July 9 2008:
After hours of walking all through Manhattan Island, I decided to sit down in a nearby coffee-shop. I hate coffee, I can hardly even bear the scent of it, but I really needed to sit down and rest, and try and write down what I saw thus far. The shop in question is called "Central Perk", a play on "Central Park" and the verb "to perk", so in essence it's supposed to be the centre of happiness. Happiness and coffee? That's quite contradictory. But I suppose I should add this to the list of this islands many oddities. I'm not sure I can remember them all right now, but I'll try.
So first I left that house I spent the night at. I was quite happy to leave that street with all those... things, I don't what they were. I already told you about that thing that would eat anything, but I haven't mentioned this very big bird, big enough to fit in the wheel-chair, a pink vampire-looking thing that has a fetish for counting, some red thing that keeps talking about itself in third person,... Yep, even the street where I reside looks normal in comparison.
Anyway, from here on I hitched a ride that would take me directly upon Manhattan Island. Ever been told that if you turn into the wrong streets in Manhattan, you would end up in trouble? I must say that there's always something that would help you out of it. For instance, this one alley I ran into, hoping to make a short-cut to get to the Empire State Building, I was about to be mugged by some nuns. You don't believe me? They asked me if I could help them save money for their church, but with the trip I'm on I'd best spare every dime I've got. They couldn't accept that, so with the excuse of doing God's work, they were about to use their Jesus-statues to beat me (really, one nun may be easy to handle, but a whole bunch?). I was lucky for that... well, I don't know what it was, but I was helped by something that I could only describe as chains, which had something that looked like claws on them, coming out of holes from a wall behind me. From those holes, I'm not sure, but I could swear I saw something red moving there. Letting that thing do what it's doing, I decided to get out and leave them be. Whoever said that nuns are friendly is gravely mistaken, but to me that wasn't exactly unexpected, as we all know, religion can drive people to do the most horrible things.
The Empire State Building in question was nothing to be excited about, I can tell you that. Inside it was quite dull, and the view on top wasn't something I've never seen before. Although, it did give me a good look at what's now designated as Ground Zero. Which reminded me, why would they rebuilt everything after an extra-terrestrial attack, or some rock coming from outer space, and yet clean it away when it was a terrorist attack? When asked, somebody said that something like an alien attack is something to remind the people that WE will not back down from anything from outer space. In case of a terrorist attack, it is important for the people to understand that there are too many problems on our own planet for us to be worried about anything else, that might or might not come again. I'm not sure I understand completely, but I suppose I should just take his word for it.
Once back on the ground level, I found a newspaper stand, where I saw the most bizarre papers and or magazines. One of them was called "Blush". I understand why it'd be called that, as when a man is to look at the picture of the model on the front cover, he'd immediately blush. It would've worked well for a male-magazine, except that it's targeting females. Oh well, I was lucky I wasn't standing next to a employee who works for that magazine. I'm only saying that, because I was standing next to someone who worked for the "Daily Bugle" (a local newspaper), although he looked like he was past his sixties, in other words he looked a little too old for that. He claimed to have taken the picture that's on today's paper. I looked at that paper. It was a picture of a man flying, while carrying another. A picture, of which it was taken from a very peculiar angle, I might add. It looked as though the camera that shot this was hanging somewhere between two buildings. He said he was on a flag-pole when he did that. Not quite the believable explanation, but I assumed he just didn't want to tell me his secret. The headline of the paper read that they, the reporters from that paper may have found out who it is. As I read the article in question, I read that some time after a flash appeared over the city, this man was seen flying, and a veteran photographer, that being the man I mentioned, managed to snapshot it. The rest of the article was an interview with the young girl, about my age I estimate, who thinks she knows the flying man. I must say that the girl in question, who's picture was shown, had marvelous blue eyes, I wouldn't even think of forgetting her name: Rory. Unfortunately, I also remembered the name of the flying man, but then, the guy has a name which I thought was a girl's name, which I found to be so funny, I remembered it: Jesse.
At another point, I accidentally fell through a manhole, where I was immediately surrounded by crocodiles. Or alligators, as I can't tell those things apart. Again, I was rescued by... something of which I'm not sure what it was, or rather what they were. They looked like turtles, walking and talking like humans would, each wielding ninja-like weapons, and wearing red bandanna masks. One of them, who wielded some kind of stick, decided to help me get away. He ran with me through the sewers, making sure we're far enough from these crocodiles. When we were, in that one turtle's opinion, far enough from them, he helped me get back to the surface. Although I've been in the sewers, I didn't seem to bear any bad smell. I mean, I didn't smell anything, nor did anyone else, so it seemed. Perhaps I should also mention that he helped me re-surface at a building that looked like an old fire-house, although it bore something that looked like one of those no-smoking signs, where the cigarette on the sign is replaced by a ghost. At the time, I thought I've seen everything.
How wrong I was. Some distance away from there, I passed by a comic book store. Maybe not the best choice for a tourist to be, but then again, the chances of you being robbed are much bigger at a tourist attraction than anywhere else. Besides, the fact that it had a wide variety of comics (most of which I've never even heard of) made it all worthwhile. Other than the comics I already knew, like "Stupendous Man", "Captain Baseball-Bat Boy", "Radioactive Man", "Crimson Chin",... there was also one called "9th Wonders", which was the one that really caught my interest. It tells stories about people going through the strangest things in their lives. But there were only two that really stuck out to me. One spoke of a group of genetically altered people, who escaped from the facility in which they were created, hoping that the outside world is better, only to see how terrible it is, when bombs exploded, wiping out most of America's major cities, as well as other bombs were exploded in the skies, causing an EM-pulse, which shut down all electricity. But it was the other one that made me realize how little I've really seen of "everything". This one spoke of a giant monster, of which I'm not sure how I should best describe it. It carried some kind of huge bugs on it, who would cause people to explode only by biting them. I remembered that there has been a giant gorilla on this island before back in the 30s, as well as a giant lizard in the late 90s. Remembering that, I'd wish to see a giant monster myself. Unfortunately, what are the odds of me seeing one here in N.Y.C.? Surely, similar events took place in other parts of the US as well, like the time that robots transforming into cars appeared out of nowhere, some time before I was born, giant humanoid people who'd fight giant monsters,... need I go on? But those things only happened on very rare occasions. If I really want to see giant monsters, I should go to Japan, where giant monsters (or monsters in general) appear virtually every day. I'd love to, but despite "The Seventh Man" his best efforts, the relationship between the Republic of Greater East Asia and the western world are still a little tense. Even if there were no monsters in Japan, it would still be too dangerous for me to be there. Thinking about this, it reminded me of the time that monsters started to appear in Paris, around the turn of the century. I remember to have spend a week in Paris around that period, and yet I saw nothing. Can you believe how frustrating that is? Some time ago, the same thing started to happen in England as well, and though I have spend some time in England, about a week ago as well as a few years back, I didn't see anything there. I suppose I'll have to accept that I may never see a giant monster.
Interesting to note here, is that there was a couple in the comic-store. But from the couple, only the guy appeared to be the one into comics. Although I usually don't listen in on people's private conversations, it was kinda hard not to when the female, a chubby redhead, kept shouting at her boyfriend, who appeared smaller in width compared to her. Okay, she wasn't that big, but if I were to tell which one of the two was phisically stronger, I'd go with the girl. At some point, the guy suggested that the girl should try to get to know the comics, but she thought she wouldn't be attractive to guys then. Before the guy even asked her, I already wondered why she would need that, as she's already with someone. She was a real weirdo. Wonder what that guy sees in her. Judging from their names, which were mentioned in their conversations, I'd say the guy looks more like a lily and the girl looks more like a brat to me, rather than the other way around.
Now I'd better let my hand rest from all the writing.
I've only just visited Liberty Island, and I'm on the ferry taking me back to Manhattan. The statue in question already appeared big on the photos, but was huge in reality. Inside it, there wasn't much to say, except that I sometimes saw traces of dried slime, as well as something that would indicate some kind of secret passageway through the statue's face. Outside, I found an old plague that read "Liberty Island Security Control". This is only one of the many remnants of the time that Manhattan Island was a prison. By the way, the prison's guards were stationed on Liberty Island? How's that for irony!? Come to think of it, from the statue's head, I could see many remains of walls, on the lands surrounding Manhattan Island, and on those lands there's still some graffiti left that read things like "Bring back New York" or anything in that nature. Though NYC isn't a prison anymore, there are still too many souvenirs from the time that it was. It's like the Great Wall in Berlin. Although torn down, there are still signs left to indicate it was there, or as some would put it: "It's like the Wall is still there."
On Liberty Island, I found a pamphlet, that spoke of some kind of exposition taking place all through the States, where you can see some gadgets that will be used in the near future. Every day of the summer, it'll be somewhere else. I could wait for it to arrive here in New York, but that would take a few days, which I'd better not waste. So instead, if my calculations are correct, it would be best if I go to Bangor, Maine, to visit the exposition.
Past Manhattan Island, there's something known as Long Island. Heard so much about it, but I wonder what's so special about it. I guess it may be best that when I go to Maine, I'd best go through Long Island to get there.